![]() Now, that’s around a little bit,” he said, and in 20 he completed tattoos at potlatches. “I hadn’t heard of anybody tattooing at a potlatch in recent times. The Potlatch Ban made it illegal for Indigenous people to practice culture and banned ceremonies such as the potlatch between 18. Tattooing at potlatches used to be common, Nahaan says. Scarification is when you cut the skin and then brush the area with ink. Skin stitch is where you soak thread in ink and move the needle and thread in and out of the skin. Hand poke tattooing is when you dip a needle into ink and use it to poke just beneath the skin. Nahaan and Nakkita Trimble, who is Nisga’a and is also part of the exhibit, explain the tattooing methods they use. Since then, I’ve been doing hand poke, skin stitch, hand tap, and scarification.” “As for a methodology, I put down the machine in 2018. It was always 110 per cent support,” says Nahaan. When it came to tattooing, my community was like ‘Yeah, go for it, bro!’ and offered up their skin. “That influence was always there, the research was always there, and the confidence from my community was always there. They would send him poster-size sheets of formline drawings, and he would colour them in. He began researching Tlingit formline when he was a kid and says he was influenced by relatives who were carvers. “It’s always been ancestral work, either from my people or from the client’s people,” says Nahaan. ![]() I’ve never done numbers or letters,” says Nahaan. ![]() “At the time it was with a machine, but it was still doing formline crest design work. “I’d never really planned on doing tattoos,” he says, describing how he started tattooing Nahan’s familial lineage is Iñupiaq from Nome by his mother, Kaigani Haida from his father, and Paiute from Fort Bidwell by his biological father.īorn and raised in “Seattle, Washington,” Nahaan began with crest design in wood carving before turning to tattoos in 2009. Nahaan, who introduces himself in Łingít, is Tlingit and is from the Killer Whale Dorsal Fin House. “So, it really is to signify who we are and identify who we’re related to, and that is really important to every aspect of our culture.” Hand poke and skin stitch “These designs would signify where we’re from and who our family is, and through that process, our rights, responsibilities, obligations, and privileges,” he says. The ancient practice is about claiming identity and telling the world who you are, says Nahaan, whose designs are featured in the exhibit. It features photographs of Indigenous tattoo artists and their work, historical photographs of Indigenous tattoos and a variety of paintings, sculptures and videos by the artists. The revitalization and rich history of Indigenous tattooing is the subject of a touring multimedia exhibit that’s currently on display in “Surrey.”īody Language can be viewed both virtually and in-person at the Museum of Surrey until Sept. Nahaan is one of the artists featured in the exhibit.
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